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People rarely mention the last ball of the Ashes. The opening delivery that's famous. That stray ball that goes to the slips, that beautiful stroke for four, that dismissal, shattering the stumps! Last balls? I had to research them. Ali slicing a drive behind to end an innings rout in a dead rubber in 2015; Rankin being caught in the slips off Ryan Harris, Rankin featuring in his single Test at the conclusion of a quick disintegration in a comprehensive defeat that's been commonplace in 2014; a Steve Harmison rising delivery ricocheting away Langer's shoulder for four leg byes, the only four Australia score in a run chase they'll not undertake in 2005.

It distinguishes between questioning how things will go, and knowing how they do. One thing's certain, there's no assurance there will be a successful conclusion. For the past ten years, the English Australian tours have finished in defeat, instead of with them. Andy Flower was removed as head coach after an embarrassing rout, in 2013-14, Silverwood was let go after a further defeat, in 2021-22. It's possible to form a couple of teams out of national team members who participated in their concluding Test match at the back end of an trip Down Under during the past 25 years, and still have a few players over to serve as reserves for either side.

This England team have not professed to care too much about consequences. Ben Stokes, like Morgan with the one-day side before him, always says that whether or not a aerial shot is grabbed near the fence is secondary as if it was the proper call to play it in the beginning, and while fielding he's happy to clap a delivery man who gives away boundaries so long as they help bring the team nearer to taking that next wicket. But then the very reason Stokes tried to teach his team to play this way was so they would be in a better position to produce the kind of cricket he thinks will succeed for them in Australia.

The forthcoming contest, for which they have been preparing for so long, already seems like the result they can't get away from. It is Bazball's make or break moment. And there are too many warnings of defeat in English cricket for the team to avoid backlash if they do endure a further disappointing result in the upcoming period. The captain's strategy has been predicated on defying expectations, and the flipside is it feels as if there are numerous observers who would be thrilled to be proven correct.

Given that, it's a suitable occasion to highlight that the key issue is not only where this concludes, but whether or not we found pleasure along the way. Four years ago, England were an completely dismal cricket team. They had been defeated in four straight contests and were trailing in the final one, against the Indian team, when it was postponed because of the pandemic. They had won a single Test match out of seventeen, and lost twelve of them by embarrassing margins. Eight wickets to the Kiwis at the Birmingham ground, A defeat by 157 runs to the subcontinent team at the the London ground, an a comprehensive loss to the Aussie team at Melbourne, A ten-wicket loss to the Caribbean side in the scenic location.

The English side was routed by the Caribbean team in the island in the early part of 2022 just before Joe Root stepped aside as skipper.

By the end, after all those months of health protocols and social distancing and biosecure bubbles and constant defeats at the hands of all opponents, they were just about the most dejected and exhausted Test team the English cricket board had ever fielded to a sports ground. A significant portion of what Ben Stokes and McCullum have done in the subsequent years was in response to all that, as well as the former's personal encounters during his five-month break from the game in 2021 when he had suffered a series of panic attacks. It was intended to remind everyone that it was supposed to be enjoyable, if it was meant to be something.

This continues to be the case now. Although the the prestigious contest is on the line, and regardless if the team have finally recognized that they need to be a somewhat adaptable in the way they go about playing the game. Everyday life has a way of crowding in, it can be hard to remember the insights we gain in our lowest moments.

Presented is the English squad that peeled off back-to-back fourth-innings chases of significant totals in one period against the Kiwis; that scored a huge total to beat the subcontinent giants that identical season; that became the first touring team to win a whitewash in Pakistan; that battled hard to a draw after going two games behind in the the contest; that overcame the Indian team in the southern city off the back of one of the finest batting displays ever played in the the area, and then beat Pakistan in Multan off the back of another.

This is the English squad, too, that managed to end up being defeated in a Test by an innings even though the rivals made a relatively low total; who ended up suffering a loss in one of the more exciting matches ever played after making a confident decision in the opening session against the Kiwis, and then did the same thing against Australia; who were routed by 434 runs in the venue, and who were on the unsuccessful part of one of the island nation's greatest victories. Between them, they have secured some of the unlikeliest wins, experienced some of the poorest performances, made some of the unlikeliest hundreds, and taken some of the most remarkable exceptional bowling spells in the annals of the English game.

However this Ashes series unfolds, they have been, successively, astonishing, outrageous, absurd, infuriating, and completely, without regret, unapologetically thrilling.